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Wednesday, 10 September 2014

So for the past two days it has done this. Snowed. Blah! It would be pretty if it wasn't the beginning of SEPTEMBER! Welcome to Canada folks! Most of the weather stereotypes about us are pretty much true, just so you know.

The power was out at the school, so no school for the boys today. They are quietly playing- surprise surprise- and I thought I'd take the opportunity to get in a little sewing while we are house bound.
Then I remembered.

No sewing machine- it's at my sisters. We share a machine.

So it's a cutting day for me. And I hate cutting. But it must be done. I wish I could hire someone to cut for me. That would be nice. Expensive, but nice.

I'm cutting more strips for the modern bargello I'm doing. Modify that to the quilt that I'm still doing.
My goal is to have it done by the end of this month.

I'm trying to decide on a grey minky backing or the silver mirror ball dot of Micheal Miller. Minky scares the heck out of me, but is much more suited to where we live. But the mirror dot is so pretty! Decisions, decisions.

Friday, 5 September 2014

So a month and a bit after it was supposed to be completed, I finally finished the quilt I was making for my brother and his then fiance, now wife.

Whether out of audacity, ignorance, or stupidity, I thought that a double wedding quilt would be the perfect project for me. In all honesty, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The idea of curves terrified me at first until I did about three of them and then I got the hang of it and didn't even need to use pins.

The idea for this quilt came from Victoria Findlay Wolfe's quilt. I loved the idea of a modern take of a double wedding quilt and couldn't wait to try and replicate it.

If you want to know more about how the quilt was actually constructed you can see here.

I decided to quilt the thing using some traditional motifs, and some radiating lines to keep a more contemporary aspect to it. I did a horrible job at basting and as a result had some issues (see here).

BUT I am getting better at free motion quilting. Sort of moronic that I keep waiting until I do a large complex wedding quilt to actually do any sort of free motion quilting, but so far it's worked out okay. I kept the backing a simple Amy Butler print because I had so many seams already happening on the front. The thought of having to quilt through more was daunting (and honestly after the front I was pretty much done piecing anything).

And then after I had quilted the thing and was squaring it up, I noticed I forgot to piece a whole corner of the quilt. So the corner became a quilt as you go part of the quilt as I added a top corner piece to it.

The binding was actually the thing that went together with little fuss and difficulty (and that's saying a lot when you consider my aversion to bindings in general).

In fact, the hardest part of the quilt was taking some dang pictures of it. It got hauled all over in search of a great photo opportunity, which never materialized. Needlessly to say, it needs a wash- especially after getting stuck and dragged through a bike wheel on route to a potential photo shot.

Added to this was the lack of general enthusiasm and cooperation I get when photographing a quilt. I think I need to give my family members a course on how to hold a quilt. Like hold it straight (okay confession, I can't take a straight picture to save my life, but the problem is compounded when the quilt is crooked in the first place). AND don't step on it and for heavens sake refrain from the very audible sighs and complaints.

I'm looking forward to giving this quilt to my brother and his wife this Sunday. It was fun to design and make, despite it being a pain in the butt (sort of like my brother sometimes too, so fitting I guess).